We would be stupid not to play on it. Lean on it when he's on the floor, "accidentally" stick a had in there in scrums, whatever it takes.

Wigan have proved time and time again that they simply don't care about player welfare when it comes to their opposition, why should we be any different on Saturday?

What I don't understand is that if McIlorum is such a limited player then why the need to even bother?

FWIW I think Roby is twice the player. I posted on here after Good Friday that you were all over reacting to the defeat and that Saints would have a good season. I was right. Brown has proved to be a good coach and has got the best out of the resources available, surely the test of any coach. Wane does the same.

It promises to be a cracker on Saturday, and I can't wait. I'm confident about Wigan's chances but no way am I underestimating Saints.

It's not about MM being a limited player it's about his ability to lose it.

If MM was the same player, but say Charnley had the ability to lose it, then no one would be suggesting annoying MM. It's not the player we are interested in winding up, it's the penalty and possible sending off or sin binning that we are interested in as any team down to 12 men or constantly being marched up the pitch is going to struggle more.

Personally I just don't think we have the brains to niggle it out of him. A lad going toe to toe will end up getting sent off. Someone like LMS will just get penalized for ball stealing. To niggle a player into being unprofessional, you don't need a bruiser, you need brains. And that's the one thing we lack on the pitch, someone who will go out there, find a psychological weakness and take a punch for his efforts without retaliating in the hope of taking them down a man.

Was it Murphy who did it in the CC years ago.

You have to be tough as you are going to get lamped, but I don't think we have it in our armoury. Should Wigan fall behind then that is more likely to push MM to push his limits far more than any gameplay we could muster up ourselves.

Point being it's not about MM it's about a player with a track record for being a liability to the team when he goes to far. If he can keep it in check then all the niggling in the world will do nothing. I certainly would not advocate sacrificing a player to go and lamp him to take him out of the game as that would weaken ourselves more than Wigan, given his limited effect.

If we had a clever player it maybe a ploy worth doing, but as we don't just play to our strengths which at the moment is tackling.

Cut the penalties and dropped ball and Wigan will have to put on some attacking flair to break us down outwide.

Charnley will have a field day against Swift if he's left exposed but I disagree that Burgess is far superior than Makinson. Makinson is a much more complete winger and will deal with Burgess capably IMO. Many thought Carney would roll over Makinson a few weeks back but he got smashed every time he carried it, many underestimate just how good Tommy's defence is, it's excellent. Swift on the over hand has a lot of work to do in defence, as I said, Charnley could see plenty success down that channel.

I'm hoping for rain as I think that gives us our best chance, keeping it tight to the ruck.

As already mentioned we need to play a similar game to the one we played at the DW. That particular game we broke up there structure by moving quickly into there line so they couldn,t dominate.
I don't think we need to concentrate too much on MM, don,t think we will see him making himself available to be tackled with the ball in hand. Its Smith and SOL who need to be contained.
Reading the Rugby Papers I should imagine our players will be highly motivated by the weekend with whats been written in the press, last game for Soliola and Manu might mean they go out with a BANG.

Couldn't agree more - he's dead with the ball.

I think we'll match their pack, our issues on Saturday will be out wide as they have good, complementary halves and brilliant wingers (thankfully the centres aren't all that).

Saints have had Roby and Cunningham so he would have had to be Cameron Smith to be first choice hooker here.

And anyway, Matty Smith couldn't hold down first choice 7 at Saints, doesn't stop Wigan fans claiming he's the best 7 in super league . . . . .

Warrington don't play with one hooker, they use the two in the same fashion as saints did with KC and Roby.

It has worked for both clubs IMO

I understand the point re Cunningham and Roby but that just further cements my point that he isn't up there with the best; hence you moving him on just as we did when better options came along.

The difference is that Matty Smith was just a youngster during his time with you and has matured into a much better player than he was then. In fact I'd go so far as to say he is a completely different proposition these days and he has proved it numerous times. Higham is a player coming to the end of his career. There is no real comparison between the two as I'm sure you already know.

Almost all teams work with two hookers. I'm not sure that alters the points I was making in any way. Higham is still back up hooker whichever way you dress it. What about the questions I asked at the end Pete? What's your opinion on those?

Making the dream team two years running suggests he's rated by more than just Wigan fans. He couldn't make your team because Eastmond was thought to be a better long term bet. And no doubt looking at the two of them, at the time, that was a reasonable view.

I think you are perhaps failing to take account of Smith's progress though. He certainly isn't the same player he was in the 2010 GF.

I think you're missing my point, which is that being released by Saints doesn't necessarily mean you're not a top player, it may just mean you had playes like Cunningham/Roby/Eastmond blocking your path at the time.

Can't disagree with any of that. If our pack sit back and let Wigan attack, we'll lose. We did that against Catalans, but they weren't good enough to take advantage. Warrington did the same on Friday and were lucky only to be 8 points down. Wire stood up in the second half and pushed Wigan.

I remember Brown saying after the game against Warrington at the Magic Weekend that he knew how to beat Wigan. He proved that in June. We played with aggression, we played a bit dirty in June, and that's what we need to do on Saturday. If we don't we'll lose. We need Mose, Sia, Amor and LMS to play as they can, and if they do, we'll always have a chance.

I'm confident our defence has enough to contain Wigan, my concern in that we might not have enough in attack. Our kicking game needs to be perfect, but with no recognised kickers, that's going to be difficult. I think it will be a very close game, and wouldn't be surprised if it's very low scoring. Goalkicking could be very important, and I'd take every shot we may get at goal if we're level or ahead.